African Empires to 1500 CE

The Kingdom of Aksum

In the sixth century, the kingdom of
Aksum (Axum) was pursuing trade and empire. Despite the
disintegration of the Roman Empire in the 400s and the decline in world trade,
Aksum's trade increased during that century. Its exports of ivory, glass
crystal, brass and copper items, and perhaps slaves, among other things, had
brought prosperity to the kingdom. Some people had become wealthy and cosmopolitan.
Aksum's port city on the Red Sea,
Adulis, bustled with activity.
Its agriculture and cattle breeding flourished. Aksum extended its rule
to Nubia. It expanded across the Red Sea
to Yemen. It extended its rule to the northern Ethiopian Highlands and east along
the coast of the Gulf of Aden to Africa's eastern-most point at Cape Guardafui.

From Aksum's beginnings in the third century, Christianity there had spread.
But at the peak of Christianity's success, Aksum began its decline. In the late
600s, Aksum's trade was diminished by the clash between Constantinople and the
Sassanid Empire over trade
on the Red Sea. Aksum was driven out of Yemen. Then Islam
united Arabia and began expanding. In the 700s, Muslim Arabs occupied the Dahlak Islands just off the coast of Adulis, which had been ruled by Aksum.
The Arabs moved into the port city of Adulis, and Aksum's trade by sea ended.

Aksum was now cut off from much of the world, and in Aksum the language of trade – Greek – declined. Minted coins became rare. Paganism revived and mixed with
Christianity. And it has been surmised that the productivity of soil in the
area was being diminished by over-exploitation and the cutting down of trees.

Taking advantage of Aksum's weakness, the Bedja people, who had been living
just north of Aksum, moved in. The people of Aksum, in turn, migrated into the
Ethiopian Highlands, where they overran small farmers and settled at
Amhara and other nearby places.
And with this migration a new Ethiopian civilization began.